Aeroflot Open is considered to be the most representative open tournament in the world. In 2004, the festival entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the event with the biggest number of grandmasters participating in it. In the recent years, the tournament saw such chess starts as Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, and many others.

During drawing of colors, the top seed of the main tournament Wei Yi (China) drew a black pawn, giving all players in all groups with odd numbers Black in the first round.

The competition will consist of three groups according to the rating of the participants - А (2549 and more), B (2299-2550) и C (2300 and less). Participants of all the groups will play 9 rounds according to the Swiss system.

In general, more than 100 players from 22 countries will take part in the A tournament. The winner of the main tournament will qualify to the super tournament in Dortmund (12–23 July, 2019).

Special prizes for seniors, women, and juniors (amounting to EUR 2500) will be set as well; a participant can be rewarded only with one (the highest) prize. The festival has a guaranteed prize fund amounting to EUR 120,000.

The organizers are Aeroflot, the Russian Chess Federation, and the Association of Chess Federations.